GED program an open door Focus on GED helps some students get back on track

Some students see potential, work toward degree, college Program offers troubled youth a chance to regroup

November 14, 2008|By Emily S. Achenbaum, TRIBUNE REPORTER

Safer Foundation teacher Brandon Thompson posed the question, "Is it important to know a second language?" and 15 students stared at him, less than eager to write an answer in a five-paragraph essay.

Thompson, 30, was unfazed.

"On the GED, they're going to give you a topic you don't want to write about, I guarantee it," Thompson said.

That got the pencils moving.

Just about everyone in Thompson's classroom should be in high school but isn't. Earning a GED may be their best shot at turning their lives around. Most of the students, ages 16 to 21, were referred to the Youth Empowerment Program -- a GED course run by the Safer Foundation -- by the criminal court system.

The Safer Foundation -- a nonprofit that helps Chicagoans who have been in the criminal system re-enter the community, get job training and find jobs -- is one of the Chicago-area organizations supported by Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV Holiday Giving, a campaign of Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund.

A five-paragraph essay makes up a good chunk of the GED exam, and some of the students fear it will be the hardest because of the essay's strict style rules. For eight weeks in Thompson's free, grant-funded class, they study essay writing, math, science and social studies full time.

"You could get a job quickly with a second language," said Joseph Razo, 16. "That's the only idea I got."

With prodding from one of the volunteers, Razo eked out a second paragraph, and a third. You can get to know more people if you know a second language, he wrote. It's an asset, he added. Soon, he's filled a full legal pad page with his small handwriting. Razo said he hasn't been in school for three years and is determined to get his GED. A taste of the working world and a brush with the court system motivated him, he said.

"If I don't get a GED, it'll be hard to get a job," Razo said. He was last in school at age 13, when he was kicked out. He was referred to the Safer Foundation after he wound up in court on a marijuana possession charge. Before enrolling in the GED program, Razo said he did backbreaking construction work -- the type of job he hopes he'll be able to avoid with a better education -- and spent a lot of time sitting at home, bored. School is much better, he said, adding he plans to apply to college to study engineering.

The Safer Foundation's GED program, in its 15th year, runs five times a year, with about 100 students enrolling annually, said Joyce Bowen, associate vice president of the foundation's educational programs.

Thompson said about 30 percent of the class will stop coming over the course of the session, and about 85 percent of those who stay will pass the GED. He said some of his students never made it past 8th grade.

"Some of them are definitely here because their probation officers want them to be. Some of them are tired of being in trouble and see this as an alternative," he said.

Student Christina Langston, 16, liked the essay question, and read hers to the class in a dramatic voice.

"Langston, like Hughes. He's a poet, so am I!" she said when introducing herself.

Langston, who was convicted of assaulting another teen, said writing poetry helps her work through her emotions. She's focused on getting her GED, she said, and wants to attend Chicago's Truman College and eventually go to law school.

"It's keeping me off the streets, away from negative people," Langston said. "They say even though I messed up in my past, I'll have a better future."